Apple gunning for parents' pockets with new WatchOS 5 walkie-talkie feature

By Daniel Petrov

Jun 04, 2018, 1:29 PM

The Apple Watch can be used as walkie-talkie

Apple just unleashed what is perhaps the single most useful feature that will make parents go out and buy its Watch in droves - a walkie-talkie option. That's right, those cheapo Chinese smartwatches that allow you to track your kid and chat with them for pennies on the dollar through your carrier of choice will now have one giant competitor - Apple.

The new WatchOS 5 lets the timepiece connect with another person carrying an Apple Watch either via cellular connection (Series 3), or with Wi-Fi, for an instant, real-time conversations.

The corresponding Apple Watch will get a notification that it will be used in walkie-talkie mode with another one, and if it accepts, the two Watch-buddies will be idling away the hours with pointless convos in no time.